Basel & Stuttgart

This past weekend, we took a short trip before my Eurail Train Pass expired, to Basel Switzerland and Stuttgart Germany. Our first stop Saturday morning was Basel, which is located right on the border of Switzerland, France, and Germany- quite an interesting location. In fact, half of the train tracks are in France and the other half Switzerland. We were trying to guess what language would be dominant in the city, but everything is written in four languages, of course German and French, but also English and Italian, and it seems like almost all the natives here can speak all four languages quite easily.
We checked into the hostel and left to go find the Vitra Campus- the production, warehouse, and exhibit location of the chair producer, Vitra. The campus was technically located in Germany, so here the language was German and the currency went back from Swiss Francs to the Euro. As soon as we got off the bus, the location was beautiful. We hit it at the perfect time, everything was changing colors and there was a huge hill filled with orange and red leaves that reminded me of Michigan.

As soon as we got off the bus, we knew we were at the right place. The bus stop, instead of having the uncomfortable plastic benches had replica Eames wire chairs as seats.

Vitra produces several famous chairs, today Vitra and Knoll are really the only two major producers of famous architctural chairs. Back in the 70s there was a major fire on the Vitra Campus and nearly 90% of their facilities were destroyed. But it allowed them to start from scratch and come up with a new vision. Much like the way they produce chairs, Vitra decided to hired one famous architct for each building. The first is the museum, designed by Frank Gehry in the late 80s. This was one of the first buildings he built and as you can see, has similar yet different ideas to the buildings he designs today. There are no crazy titanium panels, but you can see the shape is very similar to what he does today. Gehry took common shapes and combined them in uncommon ways to produce his own piece of sculpture on the campus. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan. To me it seems luke he didn't take the beautiful location into context nor create a great exhibition space, instead he it all about himself.

As a juxtaposition to Gehry's building, just across the street sat a new building under construction by Herzog and Demuron. It is to be the home showroom for the Vitra products so visitors are able to see their furniture in use. I like the fact that Hurzog and Demuron took the 'house' campus literally and put a twist on it. They took the typical A-frame house shape, elongated it into different lengths, and combined them in different ways to create an A-typical building. I thought it worked quite well, from what I could see so far. It's a play on Gehry's design of the museum, but used in a different way for the house museum. I would have loved to see this building completed, especially to see it all set up in the inside, so I might just have to come back sometime in the future.....

The next building on the campus was Zaha Hadid's firestation. She is one of the very few woman starchitects and I had never seen one of her buildings in person before this. Plus, it was a firestation which I now know lots about after designing one myself third year. Unfortunately the building was no longer in use due to expense, but was still accessible on the tour. Overall, the spaces seemed a little awkward. The layout was open to allow for quick access to the trucks, but then there was only a 36" door opening to get to the truck. None of the walls in the entire building stood straight, they were all on an angle as well as tilted on an angle. It caused you to become confused and disconfigured, something you may not want as a firefighter. But it did allow for beautiful expressions and details- it was a beautiful building all around and most impressive that she designned the entire building without a computer!

We passed by the Alvar Siza warehouse. It wasn't an extraordinary building, and it really didn't look like a Siza building at first glance, but if you looked close, the details made the building. It was built with a brick curtain wall that hung over a steel beam, which was then placed on top of granite that hit the ground. It was a great building up close, but far back it looked like just an ordinary brick warehouse.

Just across from the warehouse was the elephant zoo- just kidding! But, really, there was. Eames designed a child's plywood chair in the shape of an elephant that Vitra recreated out of plastic. They made a little pen of them playing together- something you don't see everyday.

Next was the Buckminster Fuller dome. They built this dome for exhibition space. The frame is made of aluminum and the exterior canvas. I have never actually been inside of one before, and it had a beautiful view from the inside. It also appeared much larger once you entered. But the way the sun hit the frame and reflected on the canvas, I though, was gorgeous.

The last building on the Vitra Campus was the Tado Ando Conference Building. Tado Ando is known for his immense and strict concrete structures. He has the purest concrete buildings and creates them in such a way so that the concrete becomes a piece of art. He is so precise with the mixture, the form work, and the final look, that concrete doesn't become "easy" anymore. I must say, I have NEVER felt a smoother concrete structure in my life. It felt as though a group of workers sanded every face of concrete every day for the past ten years and then again every morning before the campus opens- it was amazing. It kept the building low to play into the site and allow the natural cherry trees quietly touch the top of the roof. The interior played off of a circle so that you are constantly moving around the building and the finishes were all in wood- it looked beautiful with the concrete. Again, another one of those architects that I had to see while I was here, and am so glad I did.

The following day we took a walk throughout the city. Basel really is a beautiful town. Parts of it made me feel like I was in a suburb of Chicago, Evanston perhaps. It was quiet, there were people sitting on the sidewalk reading a paper, the trees were changing colors, and it just seemed like a peaceful town. The old town was beautiful in its own way as well. The city isn't as old as Paris or London, butt had its own sense of style. We were lucky enough to hit Basel on it's celebration weekend, for what, I don't know, but there were carnivals and markets all around the city. It almost seemed like a Halloween celebration, but for being here on Halloween Night- there was definitely no sign of the holiday in sight.

We first saw the switching tracks designed by Hurzog & Demuron, famous architects throughout the world, but located in Basel. They designed several buildings throughout the city, but this was probably my favorite. It is called the "Switch Box" and where they switch the tracks for the railroads. The facade was so unique, and reminded me of my theater project I designed. It was comprised of several pieces of copper strips that were all twisted at different angles to produce a dramatic affect. For a building without any windows, I thought it really had attitude to it.

Another building by Hurzog & Demuron was a pharmaceutical building on the University Campus. Honestlly, I didn't think there was anything that special about it. They used a double facade, one of glass with green dots, and the other of corrugated perferated metal. From far back, it produced an interesting effect, but up close, it was really hard to look at- almost like an optical illusion.

The last building was the Renzo Piano Beyeler Museum. It was a little modern art museum located in the outskirts of the town in a quiet little neighborhood. The location and the building were just amazing. The building was constructed with these pinkish red stones that matched the changing colors of the leaves. It sat in a pool of water in the front and when you stood in the exhibit in the interior, it looked as though the water was right up to your feet- perfect place to look at one of Monet's most famous paintings. The roof structure was so unique. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures inside, but he used a system of glass and louvers for the roof to allow light into the exhibition space, yet diffuse it as not to harm the paintings. It produced one of the most brilliant museums I have seen. It was one of those buildings that felt heavy at one aspect and so light at another. Definitely an amazing place.

The next morning we hopped on a train from Basel to Stuttgart. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day in Stuttgart, and even more unfortunate, it was a Monday, the one day the city completely shuts down. So, being the unlucky one, I was only able to explore the city from the outside, and even more unfortunate, the rain never stopped. So here I was, my one day in Stuttgart with an umbrella, wet shoes, and a camera, and here you get to see what I captured on this experience. We started off by taking a tram over to the Mercedes Benz Museum designed by UNStudio. The program of this building was identical to the BMW Museum I saw in Munich- probably the only other building with the same unique program. The only purpose of this building was to show the mere power and ability the company has- to impress you enough to buy their car. What I truly liked about this building was that the entire aesthetic was structure, whereas the BMW Museum was all decoration. This museum is a cast-in-place concrete structure that curves in three dimensions. I remember seeing the formwork for this building during my concrete semester at IIT and it was just unrealistic. the amount of formwork needed for this building was intense and it's amazing that it came out so perfect. I love how there is a band of concrete covered in steel (I'm not sure if I love the steel overlay) and then a band of structural glass. The glass is angled to help hold some weight and then the angles columns are exposed behind to see the true structure. To me, this building is gorgeous. I love the shape and concept and I truly do think that it shows how much money the company truly has.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to go into the museum, but we were still able to see some of the cars at the dealership. Dad, I thought you would appreciate this one.

Our next stop was Weissenhofseidlung (yes, that's the real word) estate. It was established in 1926 as an international building exhibition on the basis of Mies van der Rohe's urban design. It was meant to sshow modern building shells with innovative plans and modern furnishings. Eleven of the twenty-one buildings still remain their today and were designed by Le Corbusier to Mies to Gropius to Behrens. When we came across Mies's building, I immediately liked it, but didn't know it was Mies. First of all, it was pink! I don't know if Mies himself chose that color, but I would have never guessed I would see a pink Miesien building in my lifetime. It was an apartment building, still in use today, and the largest building on the site. It was simple, functional, and modern. Quite simply, Mies.

The Le Corbusier building was much smaller in scale and built for two larger families. This building was also painted a strange Easter Green color, but other than that, I liked it from the outside. It reminded me of the Roche House by Corbusier I recently saw in Paris. I liked the fact that it was one large building divided into two. The balcony became a common space for the families to meet and greet, but as you approached your house, you felt as though it was your own- having the entrances on either side of the building.

The last building was designed by J.J.P. Oud, an architect I never heard of. It was a series of townhouses that I honestly thought was designed by Corbusier at first sight. I love that each residence had a band of windows that wrapped all the way around the apartment. This would be my first choice of living on this site.

Before we caught our train back to Paris, we swung by the Kunst Museum in Stuttgart. I'm not sure exactly who the architect is, but it looked quite nice from the outside. It was all glass, no structure in sight from the exterior, and a core of stone. It was very unique and placed in the heart of the center, almost as a statement of the city as a whole. It was light, yet strong, and I'm sure gorgeous at night when all lit up from the interior.

As we were in both cities, the colors were changing beautfully. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the leaves I caputured throughout the trip.

I am currently on the train between Stuttgart and Paris, somewhere in either Germany or France, and looking forward to being in Paris for one night before we head off to Rome in the morning. I'll be in Italy for the next week, Rome for class and then Venice afterwards. I will keep you updated with all my adventures. Miss you all back at home, and I can't wait to see you in just about a month!